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COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The FBI will investigate the shooting of a young black man in Columbia after the local prosecutor declined to press charges.

Twenty-five-year-old Brandon Coleman, a groundskeeper at the University of Missouri, was shot to death by a white man May 19 after a confrontation in Columbia. Boone County prosecutor Dan Knight announced Wednesday that he wouldn’t file charges, saying the shooting was “legally justified” under the state’s self-defense laws.

Coleman’s mother sought the federal investigation because she believes racial prejudice played a role in Knight’s decision.

Don Ledford, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, told The Columbia Daily Tribune Thursday (http://bit.ly/16SwKMK ) that the FBI will investigate and work with Dickinson’s office and the Department of Justice to determine if federal charges will be filed.